Help Danielle get to brain surgery in TX.

Danielle’s story:

In 2001 I was diagnosed with Psuedo tumor Cerebri or IHH. Basically my body does not get rid of spinal fluid (which surrounds your brain) so my pressure in my brain were extremely high causing me to have to get an emergency shunt  placed to drain the excess fluid off my brain. Since this time I’ve had NUMEROUS (lost track of how many) shunt revisions and back in 2018/2019 I had 6 back to back revisions in a matter of months and then ended up with bacterial meningitis and almost dying....

Fast forward to 2021, my headaches had become more frequent & severe and was starting to lose my vision & speech again so I saw my Opthamologist in February and was told that the pressures in my brain were too high causing the optic nerves in the back of my brain being squished and that if I didn’t get this under control I’d would be blind in a matter of months. I immediately followed up with my neurologist and she began by adjusting the settings on my shunt (to drain more fluid) but after several attempts to adjust the setting with no change she ordered a series of tests one being where they inject a dye into the shunt tubing and watch to make sure there isn’t a clog somewhere along the way causing the fluid to back up, that test came back that tubing was clear so the radiologist said that the shunt could be damaged at the valve. I also had a MRI of the brain which showed one of the ventricles in my brain closing up and neurologist recommended I go see my neurosurgeon regarding that and also for the shunt which appears to not be functioning as it should be since zero change with all the setting adjustments. They sent everything to my neurosurgeon’s office and their reply to her was “patient is not surgical candidate so they will not see me” meanwhile my headaches are excruciating & I’m constantly losing more vision and risk of it becoming permanent blindness.

This is where I’m completely lost!!!!!

Where we need everyone’s help…

To get Danielle’s quality of life back we’ve been working to find other ways to get her seen by a surgeon.

We have now found a surgeon willing to see Danielle and he is in Tyler, TX. We are planning on driving for an appt. to review everything and plan surgery. Surgery will be planned for later the same week to limit trips if all goes well.

We originally thought insurance would help travel costs but they stated unless transplant or bariatric surgery they don’t cover travel costs. Unfortunately it’ll be at least a week of hotel costs, gas to and from AZ, and food costs. Flying isn’t an option due to pressures for her. It’s a 2 day road trip each way in traveling for us.

A request like this is not taken lightly.

Danielle helps everyone else and now it’s everyone else’s time to help her.

Please help by donating or sharing this page to alleviate the stress of financial burden this will cause.